Page 112 of In This Iron Ground

Hakan loved him.

If he trusted them, then what did that mean?

Fear was like a fire inside him, seeming to catch on every dark thought, on every pining moment and longing thought, as painful as it was purifying.

Damien couldn’t make sense of it in the moment. Couldn’t believe it fully after a lifetime of guarding himself against the assurance that this could never be. But he couldn’t fuck this up, either. He didn’t have to tackle it all at once. He just had to take a step.

Damien turned his face and kissed Hakan’s wrist where his hand was still stroking Damien’s cheek. Hakan breathed in sharply.

“Damien.”

“Yes. Yes, yes,” Damien said, answering a question that hadn’t technically been asked.Yes, I’m yours. Yes, I love you. Yes, keep me safe, give me a home.“I love you. You know I do.”

There was a moment of disbelief, and then Hakan was gripping his face. His eyes were bright.

“Damien, Damien,” he said. They fell into each other, lips pressed into a kiss filled with watery laughter.

Damien could feel it inside. The truth of it. Even as his head tried denying it, his gut knew.

Home. Family. Pack.

Damien felt Hakan’s skin and his body. His Ousía.Him.

They curled into each other in the streaming sunlight. The world contracted to contain just the two of them, leaving everything else behind.

It had been a long road. The rest of it stretched ahead, difficult and uncertain. But if they could keep this one promise. To shelter each other, to persevere together, they could make it.

Damien had hope.

**********

This is what they didn’t tell you.

Some families were given, and some families were found.

Damien looked around. The faces of the Salgado pack were lit by the roaring bonfire. The new moon night was dark beyond them, filled with the pinprick of stars.

Their faces smiled and welcomed. Damien could smell the birch and daffodil. Could hear Nova’s voice speak of new beginnings. Of nature. Of pack.

He could feel it in that moment. Not only his Ousía but that of the land. Of the pack. Of his Kephale. Of Hakan.

He closed his eyes. He took a deep breath. There was no moonlight, but it didn’t matter. It was inside him now.

There was a golden thread making its way through him. The gentle touch of it was a question. A calling. A scent that draws you home.

Damien followed. His nomadic feet were tired. It was time to share the burden instead of carrying it alone.

He opened his eyes. There, across the flames, was Hakan. His face was shining, eyes sparking yellow in the light.

He felt the thread tighten and—there. A knot, a binding, a bond.

He looked at Hakan as the air filled with howls. His heart was racing. He felt the Ousía of the pack thrum through him, a home.

Hakan smiled and his howl joined the pack.

Damien knew this wasn’t the end of the road. If there was one thing he knew, it was that nothing was ever easy.

But, God, could it be good.